The Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology and Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in his special address to e4m-DNPA Future of Digital Media Conference and Awards, on Friday, shared a concern of online news agencies about the economics of digital content.

He said that AdTech platforms have a huge control over digital advertising, which has led to an imbalance between content creation and content monetization.

“It leaves the small guy at a disadvantage, which is not really the right thing for a country like India where we potentially have hundreds and thousands of content creators,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.

He added that it is clear that at some point the consumption of news in particular and content in general will swing sharply to the internet.

In his address, Chandrasekhar said that accountability to the consumer is something that needs to be focused on. “As millions of consumers use the internet and consume products and services, it’s time accountability to the consumer is also something that needs to be built and legislated,” he said.

“For many decades, regulation and law making or government and societal scrutiny about digital platforms lagged innovation because it was seen that these were all innovation platforms and they do not represent any threat or criminality,” the minister said in his virtual address.

“Covid pandemic has caused one big jump in the consumption pattern of consumers and this disruption will be the normal for all things digital like we have seen with the introduction of the ChatGPT,” the minister said.

The first ever digital media conference, focused on the future of digital media in India, comes at a time when digital media businesses are trying to figure out business models to navigate a complex future. The Future of Digital Media Conference 2023, attempted to answer these questions.